The present invention relates to an appliance for use in injecting a pesticide or a termiticide between the outer brick wall and the inner structural wall of brick structures. In particular, the present invention is intended to be used to provide a means for facilitating the injection of chemical pesticides between the inner and outer portions of the exterior wall system of a brick structure, thereby providing a perimeter pest control system which extends around the periphery of the structure.
In the past there have been efforts to provide pesticide treatment to protect structures at the time that they are constructed. While it has been common practice in the construction of new buildings to pre-treat the fill or soil area which is to underlie the foundation with a termiticide, the initial termite barrier does not last indefinitely, so there is a need to supplement this barrier during the life of the building by providing an efficient and inexpensive means at the points where termites or other insects can gain access to wooden structural members. While termites do not bore holes through brick and mortar, they can gain entry into the areas where there are cracks in the foundation or where wood is used in the construction of the building by forming earthen tunnels from ground level over the surfaces of concrete foundations, slabs, and walls. In buildings which have a brick exterior, the foundation is typically formed so as to have a stepped portion on which the lowest course of brick is laid. The stepped portion extends out from, and is lower than, the remaining portion of the foundation on which a wood wall system is supported, leaving a space between the outer brick wall and the inner exterior wall of the structure.
Once termites gain entry to the gap between the exterior brick wall and the inner wall, they are able to build tunnels in the tiny spaces between the walls and the surfacing material, and their tunneling activity will not be detected because it is behind the exterior brick wall. Thus, while the exterior brick wall will prevent termites or other insects from gaining access through them, the lack of a seal between the exterior portion of the internal structural wall and the interior portion of the exterior brick wall provides a path through which termites can enter the structure from behind the exterior brick wall.
This situation can be made worse if landscaping activities decrease the vertical space between the ground and the upper portion of the foundation wall following construction which make it even easier for termites and other insects to gain access by climbing up the edges of a foundation slab and between the structural walls and the exterior brick wall without being detected until after severe damage has been done to wooden structural members of the building.
Prior methods for preventing termites from entering between the structural walls and the exterior brick wall involve saturating the soil adjacent to the perimeter of the structure with pesticides and termiticide at the point of termite entry. This is accomplished by trenching or rodding. In the first of these methods, a trench is dug around the perimeter and filled with termiticide, e.g., at the rate of about four gallons of termiticide per linear foot of trench. In the other method, termiticide is injected through a hollow rod jammed into the soil and against the foundation about every six inches or so. Usually the soil adjacent the foundation is relatively dry. Since dry soil does not absorb liquids easily, it is not uncommon for termiticide applied in this manner to drain away very quickly, thereby making it ineffective at the point of termite entry, and, instead, creating an environmental detriment to the surrounding soil. Further, these methods are quite labor intensive, so they are costly to use. Thus, there has been an ongoing need for an efficient, labor-saving termiticide delivery system for providing an effective perimeter pest control system to create a barrier between the exterior brick wall of a building and its foundation and exterior structural walls, whereby the area between them can be easily treated on a periodic basis.
While a number of fluid distribution systems for pesticides or termiticides comprised of conduit capable of emitting pesticides or termiticides through apertures or valves have been developed for incorporation in or under a building foundation, these prior systems are typically quite elaborate in construction, requiring extensive modification of traditional and conventional building methods, expensive pumps and reservoirs, and substantial increases in building costs. Such issues have been previously noted, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,513,586 to Meyer et al. which discloses and teaches a distribution system comprising tube means disposed within a building footer constructed of conventional concrete building blocks, requiring additional support members and plate members, among other things, that but for the distribution system, would not be required as part of the footer.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,209,485 to Griffin discloses a pesticide distribution system comprised of multiple, independent, branched circuits, intended to be installed within and under a foundation at the time of construction. The system comprises many parts, and its installation requires multiple steps at different stages of construction of the building.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,602,248 to Peacock discloses a distribution system comprised of a plurality of parallel connected pipe branches, each branch thereof short enough so that fluid pressure is maintained along the entire piping, with at least two inlets into each branch. Each branch requires a closure fitting at the end opposite the inlet end. Multiple pumps are required to maintain uniform pressure in the branch lines.
There are also a number of related systems for distributing pesticide within the walls of buildings. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,676,949 of Ramsey, pipes with emitter nozzles pass through the studs of the walls with a nozzle disposed between each set of studs. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,782,026 of Bridges et al., pipes extend within the walls or, alternatively, beneath baseboard moldings on the interior walls, permitting injection of insecticide gas within the walls. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,028,841 to Lundwall an insecticide storage and pressurizing system is installed in the attic, and perforated pipes carry pest control fluid into the building walls, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,641 to Cretti describes a built-in reservoir which is installed within a building wall from which pesticide is distributed whenever the pump is operated (which can be done by a timing device for injecting predetermined amounts at predetermined spaced intervals).
U.S. Pat. No. 3,330,062 to Carter is another pest control system utilizing pipes installed through holes drilled through the wall studs of a building with the pipes requiring threaded caps at their distal ends. U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,110 to Sims relates to a method for applying pesticide into the concealed areas of a building, by injecting pressurized chemicals through perforated preinstalled tubing. U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,749 to Chitwood et al. discloses a system for reapplication of termiticide to the fill dirt underlying the foundation slab of a building at potential termite entry points: junction of foundation block with slab, and openings in the slab for penetration of bundles of utility connections.
While none of the foregoing patents teaches or discloses a system adapted to deliver a termiticide barrier to the exterior walls of a building underneath its surface coating or siding materials, an effort to disclose such a system was made in U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,466 to Aesch, et al., in which a peripheral termiticide delivery system using flexible apertured tubing was described. Nevertheless, that system was designed to simply saturate the exterior foundation walls of a structure, with the treatment going down to the soil, rather than being retrofitted to existing structures having an exterior brick wall while providing a convenient and efficient means for applying pesticide.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,301,849 which issued Roth describes a flashing article used to seal out and drain away moisture from a stucco coated exterior wall surface, but it does not describe a system which can be used to seal the exposed area between the structural and exterior walls in lapped “plank” type of construction while providing a means for introducing pesticides into such exposed areas.